7/9/09 Seattle WA, then Portland & Ashland Oregon

Chapter 14: In which we have to say goodbye to Jacob and go off to take in the sights of Oregon.

Unfortunately I'm having trouble turning off the italics. So I have a choice between italics or something written in word and copied.
I’m going with copied.

I woke up about 7:10. Darya had already gone to work, so I never did get a Darya pic. I got dressed and started drawing. We had to take Jacob to work so I didn’t have quite enough time to finish. I will post Jacob’s poster in the epilogue once it is 100% finished and he has received it. It is 99% finished currently, but I believe I left my gold pencil under his couch, so I need to find a new gold pencil. In the mean time here are some leaving the apartment Jacob picks.

We wanted to take Jacob with us. He wanted to come with us. I think even the fates wanted him to come with us for all the wrong turns and misdirection we had trying to get him to work. However it was not to be. Alas! Jacob seems to be in the middle of a transition himself, and he is waiting and figuring things out, and in the meantime tending his responsibilities. I can respect that, but I can’t wait to go back to Seattle sometime to see how things turn out.

After leaving Jacob we headed down towards Oregon. We made it to Portland for lunch and a wander around town because we had time. I don’t know that I posted this in the last two posts, but Seattle seemed very eco-friendly to me. Portland seemed even more eco-friendly. They had a streetcar system that was free on the portion we wanted to ride, so we went to the art museum, and saw all sorts of things. I happily saw another Monet. Waterlilies this time. Ria fell in love with Portland. It was one of the first cities she could breath in without issue. I enjoyed my time there too. I finally got my sushi from whole foods in Portland, and we drove on to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Originally we were just going to catch the green show, but Ria found out Othello was playing and she was all about that. When I scheduled us there I had hoped we would catch a play, but wasn’t sure how things would be financially for either of us or time wise. However I was THRILLED that Ria wanted to go. And we were both thrilled to get to go to the bookshop. I had to tell Ria to get me out of there before I bought a "to thine own self be true" sign that I didn't have a place for anyway.

Before the show we got dinner and chocolate. Dinner was an amazing curry tofu sandwich from Grilla Bites. I cannot recommend this place more. They had a great variety of vegetarian food that tasted amazing.

I also got very good chocolate, completing the chocolate journey from coast to coast. (NYC, Hershey PA, Wall SD which I never ate because I left it at my parents, and Ashland Oregon)
Then we caught the end of the green show, got tickets from not exactly a scalper, but a lady with front row tickets and a son that didn’t want to attend. The only trouble was once we bought them I realized her son’s was a youth ticket, so I had to slide by without the usher’s seeing or pretend I was 17. I made up a whole backstory for my 17 year old self if asked, but managed to evade any ushers questions. I also took some pictures inside the gate which apparently is not allowed. I understood the no pictures inside the theater thing, but was surprised that these pictures weren’t allowed. You be the judge.

The show was terrific. Iago stole the show. Othello did his share of chewing the scenery in some instances, but overall did okay, and everybody else was pretty good, but Iago was riveting. He even managed to stay in character while flicking a bug off the stage. It was an open air theater, and we got to see the moon and the stars come out during the performance.

Our campsite was relatively close by, and reminded me of my childhood because it had a creek behind our site. We slept with the joy of having seen Shakespeare done well.

Next up: California